Project L
by ManeAstrum
Summary: The corruption of the TSAB runs back further than anyone could imagine, what dark secrets do they hide? What are they after? For everyone's happiness and for a brighter future, war is inevitable. Takes place 3 years after StrikerS.


Prologos

A long sigh escaped a young woman's lips before she continued to sip from her straw. Her auburn hair tied in her usual side ponytail and was still dressed in her instructor's uniform from being excused early. Currently in the kitchen of her own home, the girl's legs kick back in forth as she slowly loses herself in her thoughts.

"What the heck are you doing you idiot?" a short redhead yelled, sporting the same uniform, "Forgetting to prepare today's training regime, why did you even come to work?"

"I'm terribly sorry!" the auburn hair stated as she bowed repetitively, "I'm really truly-".

"Geez… its fine."

"Eh?"

"I said its fine! There are worse mistakes you can make, I'll just combine our two classes today and have a mock battle." A sigh escaped as the small girl crossed her arms, "Go home".

"But-"

"You've been buried in work ever since-" she caught herself, "Go home and rest you idiot. Kids these days have no backbone I can take care of the rest." A few moments passed as they stared at each other before the redhead suddenly turned around "You haven't picked up Vivio yourself lately".

Another moment of silence passed before the taller girl bowed her head again "Thank you Vita."

The woman suddenly snapped out of her daze as the doorbell rang rushing her towards the door nearly spilling her beverage in the process. "I'm Coming! I'm Coming!" she shouted catching the cup and making her way towards the door. A deep breath was taken before it was opened, only to find herself caught and dragged into the guest's chest, "Suzuka?" the unsuspecting victim managed to yelp in surprise.

"Nanoha!" the violet, long haired woman with matching amethyst eyes pulled herself back after receiving a hug in return.

A smile crept onto Nanoha's lips, and after regaining her senses also noticed a large blue wolf accompanying her long-time friend, "Ah! Where are my manners, please come in Suzuka, Zafira. Make yourselves comfortable while I prepare some tea."

"Thank you for your offer but I must return." the wolf stated looking up to the auburn hair woman, "Would you like me to pick up Vivio today as well?"

"Nyahaha," Nanoha laughed, scratching the back of her neck, "sorry for always imposing on you Zafira. Vita gave me the rest of the day off so I'll be able to pick her up today, besides there's still an hour or so before she gets out."

"It is no trouble, then by your leave." The wolf replied softly bowing his head.

"Thank you again Zafira for escorting me," Suzuka replied with a bow. As the wolf made his way home, inside Suzuka sat herself on the living room couch while Nanoha prepared her guest a drink.

"How have you and Alisa been doing?" Nanoha asked setting the tea cup on the coffee table in front of them and sat down next to her friend, "Oh and congratulations on passing the AA rank magic exam!"

The violet haired girl thanked her friend as she took a sip from the tea, "Now that I think about it, it might not have been such a good idea, Alisa got angry since she's still a B rank. I was watching her train with Zafira and Yuuno before coming here."

Nanoha let out a light chuckle, "That sounds like her. I told her it's harder for support mages to rank up so she should be more proud of herself; even Yuuno is only an A rank. As an instructor I can give her some tips but she keeps refusing my help."

"She's stubborn like that," she replied with a light laugh, "that and you are rather famous in this world, a while back when we were shopping we found a game with you, Fate, and Hayate in."

"Thank doesn't mean we still aren't good friends!" Nanoha shouted as she stood up, only to shrink back into her seat blushing from her sudden outburst, "I-" the auburn haired stuttered trying to change the subject, "I actually have that game you're talking about, Vivio threw a tantrum at the mall when I refused to buy it for her. It was really embarrassing buying something with your face on the cover, what's worse is that the manager even tried to give it to me for free!"

The two girls conversed for a bit talking about the past, their friends, their life on Mid-Childa, and their families on Earth until Suzuka hesitantly asked the question that plagued her and their friends, "How…" the violet paused, still reluctant in asking, managing a mere whisper "How have you and Fate been?"

Silence hung above the room before Nanoha answered, "I managed to talk to Fate last night… she said her mission was extended another month before she could return home." Tears welled up behind her sapphire eyes, "It's already been seven months since we've seen each other in person… and she's called off on another assignment before we were able to spend more than a couple days together…" Unable to hold back any longer tears began rolling down her cheeks, without second thought, Suzuka held her friend close and cradled her in her arms. "It's my fault…"

"There, there," her friend comforted stroking her head, "That's not true, how could it possibly be your fault?"

"It-It is… I… I- They said- They said that I-I should keep working! That-that retiring was bad!" Nanoha screamed, having trouble making coherent sentences "C-Chrono is Chrono got lowered, and Yuuno's library, and Hayate is-is doing weird missions and Signum, she's a-always beat up and..." the Ace of Aces continued to cry as she recalled the chain of events that happened to her closest friends before desperately screaming Fate's name over and over praying it will somehow bring her home. Suzuka held her dear friend close, never saying a word, as she released her heavy heart.

After half an hour the grieving girl fell asleep in her friend's arms and was carried to bed across the hall. "Selene, please contact Alisa for me." Suzuka requested quietly as she tidied up the tea cups back in the living room.

"Yes Lord," the crescent moon device in her hair band blinked as it opened a floating monitor in front of her master, a woman with emerald eyes and shoulder length blonde hair with the exception of two locks on each side going down to her chest was displayed.

"Ah… Suzuka … what's up?" she gasped lying down on the grass floor.

"Still training at Yagami's dojo?"

"Done training… too tired… just resting… outside…" the blonde took another deep breath before sitting up and giving her friend an odd look, "Where's Nanoha?"

"Asleep."

"Pushing herself again isn't she?"

A sad nod was given, "Is Zafira still there? I was hoping to ask him to pick up Vivio since he volunteered earlier."

"Sure I can ask him." Alisa turned around and walked towards the dojo until a light bulb appeared above her head, "How about I ask Zafira for the directions to the school, pick up dinner on the way back with Vivio, and eat together tonight? Think Nanoha would mind?"

"I think she'll be thrilled," Suzuka replied almost instantly, "ah try to convince her to come straight home afterwards instead of studying magic like she usually does" the transmission ended when the blonde gave her a thumb up. Turning around she softly called for Raising Heart within moments a small spherical gem with pink wings flew from the bedroom and landed on her palm, "Raising Heart, may I get the list of chores Nanoha was supposed to do today?"

"Understood." the device replied earnestly, "Thank you."

* * *

><p>"Teana!" the young woman called, her long blonde hair with a bow tied at the bottom and ruby eyes focused on her assistant.<p>

"Yes Fate?" an orange waist-length haired woman replied as she spun around to faced her superior followed by a salute.

"You're heading back to Mid-Childa right? I'm sorry but could you-"

"Deliver a letter to Nanoha right? Of course I wouldn't mind. Did you just finish writing it?"

"Y-Yes," Fate answered blushing feverishly as she handed her friend a pink envelope, "I had… trouble writing it. Thank you again for always doing this, and please tell her I'll hurry home as soon as possible."

"Ah don't worry about it, Subaru always jumps at the chance to meet her anyways, and don't do anything reckless, I'm sure your girlfriend would rather have you home safely than early."

"Right. Thank you, also could I ask you to deliver this letter to my brother too?" she asked holding up a blue envelope.

"Fleet Admiral Chrono? I don't mind." Teana responded taking the letter, looking up when the blonde didn't let go.

"…captain…" Fate whimpered staring at the floor, "he got demoted trying to give me more leave time."

"Er… yes of course. Sorry… how's he taking it?"

"Better than I thought, he said he's happy getting the chance to spend more time with Karel and Liera since he wasn't able to when stationed on the _Claudia_, though he still goes out for drinks with Yuuno on occasion."

"It's not your fault you know," the orange haired girl stated trying to comfort her superior and friend, "he was trying to help his sister spend more time with her family, no one expected him to be severely demoted because of it." Teana stopped, mentally kicking herself, seeing her words made Fate even more depressed, "I would've risked the same if it meant giving my friends a little happiness."

"Thank you" the blonde stated as they both saluted each other, "have fun down there, that's an order."

"Yes ma'am, and be careful with the rest of your mission."

* * *

><p>"Reeeeeiiiiinnnn" the brown short haired woman complained stretching on her chair before plopping over her desk. "I'm boooooreeeeed. This job suuuuuuuuuucks"<p>

"Now now Meister Hayate." A fairy-sized silver hair girl flew down and petted her mistress' head, "Making new habitable planets is a very important job! Look Rein found a good one," she boasted as she opened up a screen, "It requires pressurization to create a thicker atmosphere, but it has lots of mineral deposits and an iron core which we can melt giving it a magnetosphere and tectonic activity."

"Yaaaaaay." Hayate muttered, with a tone clearly contradicting her statement, taking a moment to confirm the information her partner gave her, "Give the satellite's coordinates to the science team to see if there are any potential asteroid impacts and determine the optimal planetary barrier to reduce cost, figure out what gases the atmosphere consists of, if there's an abundance of nitrogen and oxygen start flooding, if not figure which plant is best to cultivate it."

"Yessir!" Rein shouted and flew out of the office.

"Mou! You don't even need be a mage to lead a planetary engineering mission, and be in the research department! I'm an SSS rank mage, and in the special investigations department, and a goddamn commander, I should be leading teams to catch bad guys not make oversized chia pets!" the woman yelled flailing and spinning in her chair plopping back onto her desk after her rant. Once settled down, a brown book hovered in front of her. Closing her eyes the brunette placed the palm of her hand on the cover, as she opened her eyes she found herself floating in a pitch-back room, with an older pink haired woman standing in front of her.

"Mistress." The older woman bowed.

"Signum, it's good to see you doing well," she smiled, "sorry for interrupting your dream."

"No need to apologize Mistress. Is something the matter?"

"Still a bit amazed how I didn't know about this feature until recently," the girl laughed.

"You give it too much credit, we could all communicate telepathically as long we're on the same world, and modern technology gives us a mean to contact each other when telepathy fails. Also this feature only works when the targeted guardian is asleep, since our consciousness is connected to the book, there is little use for such a skill in present time with the exception of secrecy," Signum paused, looking at her master who appears to be lost in thought. "Worried about the information Zest gave us?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't… it's still a little hard to wrap my head around." The brunette crossed her arms, a frown appearing on her face, "It was as Zest predicted, for three months after the JS Incident the chain of command fell apart, each department went ahead by their own agendas, luck for us, the Three Legendary Admirals were able to maintain some control before it got out of hand. At the end of the sixth month the chaos ended practically overnight and the system ran smoothly again."

"Proving that the head of each branch, along with the three admirals, took orders from a higher office, the High Council, as the report said, which have been around since the beginning of bureau's foundation. If Jail actually killed them, it would explain the turmoil that ensued, however that's only if what he said was actually true, the TSAB has returned to normal, albeit more strict and harsh."

"Agito mentioned one of the Number's job was to infiltrate the headquarters to kill the High Council."

"It could also have been a ploy to assassinate Regius Gaiz."

"If that's true then it would have been more effective to kill the commander of the Dimensional Navy preventing them from mobilizing themselves to destroy the Saint's Cradle? Killing Gaiz would only disorientate the ground forces which were already preoccupied by the gadget drones. Also look." Hayate waved her right hand in to open a monitor, "Right… that doesn't work here."

"Mistress Hayate I do not need proof, your words are enough." Signum assured allowing her master to continue.

"Zest's device also mentioned the possibility of more than just three or even six High Council members. I asked Yuuno to gather some data and as I thought the passed policies, fund directions, and conditions in treaties changed dramatically after a certain amount of years, ten to be exact. Makes you wonder just how many there are..." Hayate was already pacing back and forth in the dark room as she tried to make sense of the information. "I tried to get some more intel, but Yuuno was stripped of his Chief Librarian status and banned from the library, he isn't even allowed to leave the city."

"They stripped Yuuno of his privileges and assigned you to terraforming missions as a warning not to get too close. Mistress, I believe its best that we stop before it gets too dangerous."

"I can't do that Signum! Haven't you looked at the missions you've been to?" Hayate yelled, practically shaking, "We're decimating counties that just look at the TSAB wrong, I won't stand by while they just use you as a weapon!"

"I knew exactly what I signed up for; I would gladly sacrifice myself to ensure that-"

"No! You're not a weapon! Not a servant! Not a program! You're family! I can't stand seeing you so badly wounded after each mission, and they're forcibly splitting up our family."

The knight stepped forward, holding her master in her arms before she decided to speak, "what do you think their intentions are?"

"The Lost Logia, I'm fairly positive it's that, Jail Scaglietti was their attempt in obtaining more weapons as well as its proper usage. When I first tried to create my own unit for all of us I was denied almost immediately, at least until I requested to create my own battalion to locate and retrieve Lost Logias. It was still denied but later accepted and even requested as long as I report directly to TSAB headquarters."

"Was this the reason why…?"

Hayate pulled herself away from her knight, "Yes I dissolved Riot Force 6 under the pretense that I wasn't ready to lead a full unit, which was also part of the reason, but I started having a lot of doubts after getting Zest's information. Zest… just how did you managed get all this information? When we were still active we found some pretty daunting Lost Logias didn't we?"

"And we handed it straight to the enemy." Signum shuddered when she remembered standing in front of a machine, so massive her neck strained to look at the goat-like head.

"Signum!" a voice called out surprising the knight.

"Is something wrong?" Hayate asked.

"Ah, my apologies mistress, I'm being awakened on my side. Please stay safe." With that the tall knight bowed before disappearing.

Turquoise eyes were closed and she soon found herself once again in her office. The door suddenly shot open with Rein flying towards her, yelling about a video call from Yuuno. The tiny girl sat on her master's shoulders and she opened up a monitor, showing a blonde man with glasses whose long hair was tied into a ponytail at the back. "It's good to see you Yuuno."

"I got what you asked for." The man on the screen stated with a distressed face.

"I thought you couldn't-"

"That doesn't mean I can't get a friend get to for me." Yuuno interrupted his expression remains unchanged despite Hayate's wide smile, "stars and lightning."

Before Hayate could say anything in reply the transmission closed, quickly she turned to her partner, "When is the soonest we could get to Mid-Childa?" Rein opened up her own monitor and began calculating the best schedule and fastest route home.

* * *

><p>A tall man with golden eyes roared his shoulder length black hair was tied into a low ponytail as he chased the children in front of the school church. Reaching down he picked up a small blonde girl with green and red heterochromia eyes and threw her over his shoulder as she kicked and screamed.<p>

"He's got Vivio!" a boy yelled pointing at the adult.

"She's a lost cause, run before he gets us too!" another boy retorted as he continued running around.

"Vivio! I'll save you!" a pale-brown haired girl ran towards the man, her long pig tails flowing behind her as she jumped and tackled kidnapper in the stomach.

The man hastily held Vivio with outstretched arms preventing her from getting hurt as he toppled to the ground, soon finding himself on the receiving end of a dog pile followed by laughter and triumphant cheers, "Ah, you got me! I surrender!"

"Vivio!" the children followed the voice and saw a shoulder length blonde.

"Aunt Alisa!" the mismatched eyed girl exclaimed happily as she hopped towards her, only to stop abruptly for a spin and bow, "Thank you for today Mr. Morgenstern."

"Be careful on the way home." A muffled voice answered.

"Did you have fun in school today?" the older blonde asked as she took the girl's hand.

"Un, we got our math quiz back today and I got a gold star!" the young girl proudly boasted, "A lot of people did good today so Mr. Morgenstern brought us to the cafeteria and got us all ice cream! He got scolded by Sister Schach though, for spoiling our lunch."

"He sounds like a fun teacher, but don't let Nanoha that you had ice cream before dinner okay?"

"Kaaay," the child answered, "can I practice magic with you again today?"

"Not today, Suzuka is already at home with your mom, so we're gonna by some groceries for dinner and head home." the small blonde gave a wide smile upon hearing her mother was home, "does your mom usually come home late?"

"Un, I told mama that I miss Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama lots, and she gave me a really~ big hug and said for me to be patient and that she'll change jobs soon and we'll be together a lot more. I don't really understand what that all means but if I wait a bit longer we can be together again."

"I see," Alisa gave a gentle smile and ruffled Vivio's hair, "alright then! Let's get this shopping over with and hurry home!"

"Yeah!"

* * *

><p>"Nanoha-mama I'm home!" the small blonde yelled running into her mother's arms, who picked her up and spun her around, "we picked up the food Aunt Suzuka asked for, and Vivio got a gold star on her math quiz!"<p>

"Wow that's great! My girl is quite the genius isn't she?" Nanoha replied joyously, "why don't you get changed while Suzuka and I prepare dinner." She turned to her blonde friend as the little girl ran down the hallway, "Thank you Alisa for picking up Vivio."

"That's what friends are for right?" she answered crossing her arms and nodding her head.

"Aunt Alisa!" Vivio yelled from her room,"Let's play that game again!"

"You're on kid! You know I'm not gonna go easy on you!"

As Alisa and Vivio began setting up the game console in the living room, Suzuka and Nanoha started preparing the food for dinner. "How long are you and Alisa staying this time?" the young mother asked.

"Hmm," a finger came up to her lips, "we we're actually planning to live here indefinitely."

"Really?" the auburn hair shouted grabbing her friend's hands, "what made you decide to stay here?"

"It's already been two years since we first came to Mid-Childa, and I got an offer for a position as a device engineer after I worked with Mari and Shario on Selene and Amateratsu."

"Are you sure? What about your friends and family on Earth?"

"We're here more than we are on Earth nowadays so don't worry, and we made a lot of friends on this side too. Plus I won't actually be working directly with the military so there's less restrictions to visit non-administered planets," the purple girl hummed to herself while she cut the vegetables, "besides, this way, we will be here more often when Fate and Hayate come back, the five of us can be together again."

The sapphire eyes smiled radiantly at her friend's kind gesture, "Thank you Suzuka."

"You should be thanking Alisa, she was the one who suggested it and got all the papers done."

"Don't say unnecessary things Suzuka!" a voice yelled before the auburn haired girl ran to her friend and hugged her from behind. "Hey don't do that! I can't move! I'm losing! I'm losing! Gaaaah!"

"Yay! I won!" her opponent cried happily.

"That doesn't count there was interference!" the short hair protested only to have the little girl stick out her tongue in reply.

"Ne ne mama, did Aunt Alisa and Aunt Suzuka always had magic?" the small child asked with curious eyes; her mother quietly sat on the couch and held her arms outwards beckoning for a hug in which Vivio happily complied.

"Well you see…" she answered giving her daughter a tight squeeze, who was listening with honest fascination, "about two years ago Fate-mama and Nanoha-mama got a surprise call from Hayate saying that Alisa and Suzuka will be staying with us because they both found out they have magic."

Alisa reluctantly interjected, "Suzuka found her potential first, about three years ago, although she only told me at the time and refused to come here until I could use my magic too, even though I told her there was no way I had magic. She's surprisingly stubborn."

"We tried for a long time to get Alisa to use magic," the purple hair stated walking in from the kitchen, "we even got into a big argument when she wanted to give up. One day however, while we were walking home there was careless driver that was heading straight towards me."

The three adults couldn't help but smile as they watched Vivio tensed up in suspension, "and then? And then?"

"Kaboom!" she shouted causing the child to jump in her mother's lap, "The car crashed, but no one was hurt because Alisa heroically saved me with her magic by making a very strong barrier. And the moral of this story is to never give up no matter how tough or hard it gets."

"Oi! Don't make me into some sort of hero." The tall blonde complained followed by a sigh, small sparkling eyes were staring at her in admiration, "Well we went back and forth between Earth and Mid-Childa for awhile and spent most of our time getting used to this world mostly to learn how to read, Suzuka is very bad at languages so it took a while. It wasn't too long ago that we started practicing our magic."

"How mean, Mid-Childan and Belkan characters are very hard to learn, not everyone is as good as you are in languages."

"Nyahaha…"

* * *

><p>AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as I had writing it. Not much action since I had to reintroduce the characters and show what happened in the 3 years after StrikerS but there will be some next chapter if you stick around. Also sorry the last section was a bit forced, couldn't figure out a better way to explain Suzuka and Alisa's appearance in Mid-Childa. Criticism or reviews are much and thanks for reading.

I originally wanted to add Japanese honorifics since it adds a bit of closeness between characters but alas I have little knowledge of how they work and don't remember very well how characters refer to each other so in the end I decided to take it out.


End file.
